Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils opens a bold new chapter in dark fantasy fiction—a genre he helped redefine. With his signature blend of brutality and wit, Abercrombie introduces a fresh pantheon of the damned, chosen not for their virtue but for their capacity for violence. In The Devils, salvation is bought with blood, and righteousness is a blade dulled by politics and power.
Unlike his past sagas of crumbling empires (The First Law) or revolutions gone awry (The Age of Madness), this novel steps closer to the unholy—where even the church’s light casts monstrous shadows. It’s an ambitious, often blasphemous journey into a world where piety and perversion wear the same robe, and every miracle costs something irredeemable.
The Premise: Holy War Meets Monster Squad
Brother Diaz, a well-meaning but woefully underprepared cleric, believes he’s being rewarded with a noble assignment in the Sacred City. Instead, he’s placed in charge of a band of supernatural criminals, chosen by the Church not to be forgiven—but to be used. Necromancers, knights, vampires, elves—these are not champions of virtue. They are expendable. But they are necessary.
Their mission? Root out threats to the Holy Faith across a realm filled with heretics, warlords, and ravenous elven tribes. But as their journey unfolds, the line between their mission and their own damnation begins to blur.
Abercrombie uses this unlikely ensemble to explore the hypocrisy of holy missions, the commodification of virtue, and the unsettling truth that sometimes evil must fight evil.
Cast of the Condemned: Characters to Bleed For
Abercrombie’s biggest strength has always been character. And The Devils by Joe Abercrombie continues that legacy with unforgettable figures, each etched in sin and shaded in sorrow.
Brother Diaz
A man of books, not blood. Diaz is the soul of the story—fragile, reflective, and increasingly conflicted. His slow unraveling from innocent believer to disillusioned operator is painful, poetic, and profoundly human.
Balthazar Draxi
Imagine a necromancer with a flair for theater and the arrogance of a fallen god. Draxi is mesmerizing—terrifying in his power and oddly touching in his moments of unexpected loyalty. His presence dominates every scene, without ever flattening into caricature.
Vigga, Jakob, Sunny, and others
From the hulking and rage-fueled Vigga to the stoic Jakob of Thorn and the hauntingly quiet elf, Sunny, each “devil” has a distinct narrative pull. Abercrombie carves their arcs with grim precision, ensuring that even the monsters feel disturbingly real.
What binds them is not trust but necessity. Their interactions, driven by tension and reluctant cooperation, deliver some of the novel’s most potent moments.
Setting the Stage: Gothic Fantasy Meets Religious Horror
Joe Abercrombie’s worldbuilding in The Devils is steeped in theological grime. The Sacred City is both majestic and maggot-filled, cloaked in the rituals of a church more interested in preserving power than purity. Surrounding regions teem with threats—from elven raiders and undead horrors to corrupt princelings and underground heresies.
The blend of fantasy and horror here is seamless:
Cathedrals double as prisons
Clergy wield relics like weapons
Magic is outlawed, except when used by the Church in secret
This setting isn’t just background—it’s a living argument about the dangers of ideology weaponized in service of empire.
Abercrombie’s Stylistic Edge
Joe Abercrombie’s prose in The Devils dances between cynicism and insight. His voice is acerbic, literary, and darkly humorous—balancing gore with gravitas.
Combat scenes are brutal but never bloated
Dialogue crackles with irony and intelligence
Exposition is often disguised as satire, slipping effortlessly into character voice
Chapters are structured like rites or sermons, with titles that mock religious conventions. This lends an added layer of thematic richness, allowing each section to feel both episodic and unified.
Fans of Best Served Cold will appreciate the heist-like dynamics. Those drawn to The Wisdom of Crowds will see the echoes of systemic critique—but darker, sharper, and more personal.
Moral Complexity and Theological Satire
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie asks: what happens when institutions built to uphold justice begin justifying anything in its name?
Some of its central themes include:
Redemption vs. Utility: Is it redemption if it’s forced through manipulation and violence?
Sanctified Sin: The Church absolves itself of its sins by outsourcing them to others—creating devils to protect its image.
Faith as Performance: Religious conviction is often more about appearances than truth. Characters recite creeds with hollow fervor, hiding their doubts in rituals.
But Abercrombie never sermonizes. Instead, he lets the ugliness play out in action. Morality here is a smokescreen, and readers are left sifting the ashes for anything pure.
Strengths and Flaws: A Balanced Review
As impressive as The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is, it is not without its faults. Its ambition, while admirable, sometimes tests the boundaries of pacing and tone.
Strengths
Rich characterization across a wide ensemble
Inventive and unsettling worldbuilding
Smart interplay between fantasy tropes and religious critique
Consistently witty, immersive prose
Weaknesses
Occasional exposition overload: The middle section dips in energy as it lays out Church politics and mythos, which could have been more tightly woven
Character imbalance: Some of the ensemble outshine others—Sunny and Vigga, while visually memorable, feel underwritten compared to Diaz or Draxi
Tonally jarring: Shifts from grotesque horror to sardonic comedy may not work for everyone, particularly those expecting straightforward epic fantasy
That said, these are flaws of execution, not concept. They never derail the experience, only temper its momentum at times.
Where It Fits in the Abercrombie Canon
Joe Abercrombie is one of the few fantasy authors consistently evolving while staying true to his voice. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie isn’t merely more of the same—it’s a deeper dive into themes he has only skirted before.
It resonates with:
The Blade Itself, in its grimy urban politics
The Heroes, in its focus on flawed soldiers and the cost of loyalty
The Trouble With Peace, in its depiction of institutions eating their own
Yet The Devils also pushes into new genre territory: horror, ecclesiastical satire, and gothic grotesquerie. It’s his most visually haunting book yet.
Comparable reads include The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman or Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman again—books that marry medieval bleakness with unholy imagination.
Final Thoughts: Abercrombie Unbound
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is a blood-streaked hymn to doubt, a hymn sung off-key by outlaws and outcasts. It is a meditation on institutional rot, dressed up in armor, cloaks, and ash-streaked clerical robes.
It’s not for everyone. It doesn’t try to be.
But for those who crave complex characters, corrosive humor, and a fantasy world built not on chosen ones but on condemned ones—The Devils is a revelation.
Ideal for readers who:
Prefer their fantasy soaked in irony and gore
Are tired of squeaky-clean heroes and tidy endings
Enjoy books that wrestle with belief, corruption, and survival
Dark, daring, and disturbingly insightful. A strong start to what promises to be Joe Abercrombie’s most twisted and ambitious series yet.